1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to an optical disc drive, and more particularly to a method and a device for protecting slot-in optical disc drive by automatically extracting a disc when the abnormal extraction of the disc is detected in the course of loading the disc.
2. Description of the Related Art
Normally, optical disc drives are divided into tray type optical disc drive and slot-in optical disc drive according to the way of loading/unloading a disc. According to loading/unloading way of the tray type optical disc drive, the disc is placed in a receiving space of a tray, and the tray is moved into or extracted from the optical disc drive. As for the slot-in optical disc drive, the loading/unloading mechanism automatically sucks in the disc and further guides the disc to be positioned when the disc is disposed at the entrance of the optical disc drive or unloads the disc. The slot-in optical disc drive is user-friendly and is easy to be thinned.
In the course of loading a disc to a conventional slot-in optical disc drive, the user holds the disc and directly inserts the disc into the entrance of the optical disc drive. Then, the user pushes the disc into the optical disc drive. When the disc activates the detecting mechanism of the optical disc drive and the inserting depth of the disc is detected, the optical disc drive activates its transmission motor to drive the loading/unloading mechanism to automatically load the disc into the optical disc drive and further guides the disc to a predetermined position. Then, the loading/unloading mechanism uplifts a traverse having a spindle motor until the spindle motor is able to retain the disc by the central hole of the disc and to rotate the disc for the data to be retrieved.
In the course stated above, the disc is gradually moved into the optical disc drive. Before the disc is positioned, the disc is partly exposed outside the optical disc drive, and the user may extract the disc from the optical disc drive at any time. If the disc is extracted by the user after the transmission motor is already activated by the optical disc drive, the traverse, which is automatically uplifted would scratch or damage the disc that has not been completely extracted since the loading/unloading mechanism continues the loading of the disc at fast speed. This is because when the disc is extracted, the optical disc drive still continues to drive the loading/unloading mechanism to load the disc at a fast speed. Furthermore, the force to extract the disc will cause the guiding rod of the loading/unloading mechanism to be curved or deformed and make the optical disc drive jammed or damaged.
To prevent the damage caused by abnormal operation, as disclosed in the prior art of the Taiwanese Patent Publication No. 093115463, a releasing mechanism is disposed on the guiding rod of the loading/unloading mechanism. When the force received by the guiding rod is over a predetermined limit, the releasing mechanism releases a locking mechanism, such that the receiving end of the guiding rod can rotate freely to avoid the deformation of the guiding rod. However, the releasing mechanism does not stop the transmission motor, and if the user extracts the disc too late, the traverse that is uplifted fast will still scratch or damage the disc. Beside, the above protection mechanism is disposed on the guiding rod, which is narrow and small, not only making the manufacturing and assembly of the optical disc drive more difficult and costive but also not favoring the miniaturization of the optical disc drive. Thus, the manufacturer of slot-in optical disc drive still has many problems to resolve regarding the protection during abnormal operation.